Sylvester Daniel, a key witness in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, has been nabbed after he escaped from the Gujarat Police's custody near Udaipur in Rajasthan. Sylvester, an accomplice of Sohrabuddin, had fled on Friday night while being brought back from a court appearance in Udaipur by a police party from Vadodara. The incident occurred when the cops were reportedly having a snack. He was lodged in the Vadodara Jail. Sylvester was spotted by a police team in Udaipur's Bhupalpura area. A loaded revolver was recovered from his possession. Sylvester is believed to be holding some crucial leads in connection with the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin on November 26, 2005 on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, and the subsequent murder of his wife Kausar Bi a few days later.
The cops contended that Sylvester escaped while they were getting the jeep, in which they were travelling, repaired. This version was not bought by many including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which suspects collusion of the escorting police party in facilitating Sylvester's escape. The agency had, in fact, sought a report from the Vadodara Police on the matter. In response, the Vadodara Police, firmly in the dock, had written to the CBI admitting to "strong suspicion that the escorting cops helped Sylvester escape." The letter also said that there is a "discrepancy in statements by escorting policemen and the Rajasthan Police's investigation", further adding that the "Rajasthan Police is free to take action against those cops". The Vadodara Police had sent a team for enquiry. After Sohrabuddin's death in 2005, the Gujarat Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) had said that the former was a terrorist who planned to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi. In 2007, the state government admitted in court that Sohrabuddin and Kauser Bi had been wrongly killed. Some of the state's senior-most policemen are in jail, charged with murder, criminal conspiracy, and kidnapping.